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Getting ready for the turkeys

This summer has been filled with quite a number of Jeep excursions, gatherings with friends, gardening and just general enjoyment of the beautiful weather — all of which have taken place outside.

That means the inside of our abode has largely been ignored for at least the last three months. As Hubby Bryan and I anticipate the arrival of King Turkey Day company — three houseguests this year — we’ve realized that we’ve been kind of lax on the cleaning chores. Hence, I spent a chunk of last weekend frantically cleaning out windowsills, rearranging furniture and reorganizing closets in our two guest spaces. This morning, while I was getting ready for work, Bryan was vacuuming the main floor. The dusting — sorely needed — will wait until just before the first guest’s arrival (he’s coming a bit early) so it doesn’t have to be done twice.

And since the one guest will be around for a few days prior to the KTD festivities, I’ve also been trying to plan some meals. With that in mind, I made a big batch of chicken spaghetti, using chicken leftover from a weekend gathering. Two pans for the freezer, one smaller one for consumption last night.

That was accomplished on Monday, and in the mail on Tuesday came a box from sister Margaret containing two packages of turkey-shaped pasta. If I had only known, I would have waited and substituted the turkeys for the spaghetti. Oh, well. Now I’ll have to find something else to make with the unique pasta.

The basic recipe for the chicken spaghetti comes from DotMom’s “Mixing & Musing Cookbook,” credited to longtime neighbor the late Gladys Pederson. Since I can never follow a recipe exactly — and I was making this in mass quantity — I used a mixture of cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup, fresh mushrooms and added sautéed onion and celery. Oh, and since the chicken had been grilled, I also added canned chicken broth.